The Crew Motorfest hands-on preview — Revving my engine

I’m not much of a fan of racing games – mainly because I’m terrible at them. Even so, I recognize how much fun they can be, and occasionally one catches my attention. At the Ubisoft Forward event, we had the opportunity to go hands-on with The Crew Motorfest, and between myself and Ron Burke, we almost went rock-paper-scissors with it. We both managed to get a station to play on and, to my surprise, The Crew Motorfest is a stunning game that is loads of fun to play.

Everything starts with a fancy cutscene. You know how it goes, they want to show you all the fancy things you’ll be able to do and cars you’ll get to drive. That fades away to an introduction to the Motorfest. I do have to point out Motorfest resembles Forza Horizon 5, but there are certainly worse games to mimic. I’ve not had any indication from the devs that they have borrowed anything from the popular racer, but you have to admit they both are similar.

Looking the part is one thing, but doing racing well is another. After our brief intro we were thrown right into a race, with the narration directing us as if we were “testing” the cars before the Motorfest started. Made In Japan is the beginning, and boy, is it beautiful. The cars are your standard Japanese style you might see in a Fast and Furious movie, and when racing they have a pretty standard feel with the controls. The track is where everything really blows you away, with slick, rain-covered roads (which does affect your grip) drenched in neon light. It’s really a sight to behold.

From there the game shifts gears (sorry for the pun), and moves into an off-road section. You get to drive a really neat jeep, and as you put your foot on the gas it’s easy to notice you don’t have to stick to the beaten path. Not only does the race pull you off road, but you’re able to explore your options more than the previous more strict streets of Japan. Sure, you have to “color between the lines” and not go too far as to not get behind, but the freedom is appreciated. I get the feeling this is demonstrating the open-world nature of the game, which wasn’t on display for us. If it’s this good in a slice, I can’t wait to try more.

Continuing on, everything changed again, this time switching to an F1 race car and track. My surroundings were vibrant and reflected the fast pace I was moving at. In this mode, you don’t have any extra on-the-road arrows to help you with slowing down or where to position on the track – it’s all skill here. Something else to think about is tire grip; there’s a meter that drains while racing, meaning you will have to make calculated pit stops if you want to keep your car on the raceway. I love the feeling of these F1 cars; Ubisoft Ivory Tower really nailed how low to the ground these vehicles drive.

After this, I was in a fairly different vehicle than any we’d raced yet, a rocking Shelby Cobra. This Vintage playlist is awesome, with tons of older cars that just look cool. Ivory Tower is going for a more casual driving experience here, and the way these cars drive drifts into that lane. You aren’t looking for speed here. Instead, the handling feels a bit more heavy, so you’ll need to make sure to avoid twitch movements. There’s also no GPS mini-map in them (or the aforementioned arrows), which is a neat idea to take you back to a time without all the devices we take for granted now. Grab your atlas, you’ll need it.

Pivoting again, we find ourselves driving the cover car, a Lamborghini Revuelto. I just love looking at and driving this car, it’s the epitome of gorgeous. The rumble is there in your triggers (we played on PS5 controllers), the handling is sublime; it’s just the perfect car. I would imagine this one is going to take a while to unlock, and for good reason; it seems like a bit of a cheat code.

While our demo continued on a bit longer, I can’t say I got much more of a feel of where Motorfest will take things, especially given we couldn’t engage in the open world. One thing’s for sure, the driving and environments of Motorfest are fantastic, and with that in place, I don’t see how Motorfest will be anything beyond incredible. That’s not all either, with plenty of new seasonal content available almost right away, along with the ability to import your collection from The Crew 2. There’s something here for everybody, the car enthusiast and casual driver alike, and that’s a big win for a game I didn’t realize I was excited for until now.

The Crew Motorfest launches on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series consoles, PC, and Amazon Luna on September 14th.

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